No Sane Reason
by Intrepid Inkweaver
Summary: The connection was there when they met, and as insane as it was, she went with it anyways. A little look inside Rose and Nine's thoughts.
1. Chapter 1

He supposed it was silly, really, that after so long, humans could still surprise him. Rose Tyler had. When most humans had that annoying habit to deny what was right in front of their eyes, Rose had accepted the living plastic, the threat they presented, the TARDIS, and even himself with a minimal of culture shock. She had spotted the nesting consciousness before he did, and not to forget, saved his life, despite the calls of her annoying boyfriend.

He would leave her behind with a heavy heart, only if he had to. He could see the reluctance in her eyes as she said no to his first offer, so he came back to offer again. That was all the convincing she needed to come running. She was meant for adventure and danger. Having a simple life in London just didn't suit. And the happiness he felt when she came running to join him made his two hearts beat loud enough that he was surprised she didn't hear them.


	2. Chapter 2

It was strange that she had trusted him almost immediately. He had come and grasped her hand telling her to run—of course she hadn't argued, there were plastic manikins chasing her—but there was also the fact that instead of pulling her hand away to run, she had gripped his hand right back. As he told her about this "living plastic" the thought crossed her mind that he might be crazy, but to be honest, it was only for a moment. There was something about him that didn't seem crazy—in spite of how insane as it all seemed.

Even when he showed up at the cat flap, she trusted him enough to let him in the house—even though poking your head through someone's nailed-down cat flap was not something that a sane person would normally do.

His little speech about the Earth rotating and revolving left her breathless from his intensity. He told her to forget him, but how in the world was she supposed to do that? She did try to walk away, only to hear that noise and go running back. She saw nothing, but she felt she had missed something important.

After being attacked (again) by the plastic people (this time in the shape of her missing boyfriend), the ship, the TARDIS, didn't seem as unreal as it should have. The culture shock passed quicker than it should have, but a snippet of the conversation remained running through her head.

"Are _you _alien?"

"Yes."

And of course it all came down to saving the world. Her mind had been all but blank with fear there, crouching before the locked TARDIS doors beside a whimpering Mickey. But the Doctor had looked up at her—locked eyes with her—as he struggled with the things holding him. A flash of inspiration ran through her and she found courage she had no idea she possessed.

It was Mickey stumbling out of the TARDIS in fear that really made her realize how oddly settled she was with what had occurred. It took him two tries, but only two, to convince her to join him. Suddenly, gallivanting around time and space—no matter how dangerous it was—seemed so much more attractive than staying here. So she ran to him—someone she had met only a day ago—like she had known him for all time.

As insane as it all seemed, for the first time in her life everything seemed to be right.


	3. Chapter 3

She should have known it would be more shocking than she'd imagined. Seeing her home planet destroyed some few billion years in the future, and being a part of a group of aliens—aliens that actually looked like aliens (plus a piece of skin with a face that claimed to be human) who had come for the entertainment of watching a planet die was more fear-inducing than the Autons, the Doctor, and the TARDIS combined.

No matter that it was obvious and natural that everyone Rose had known was dead now; it was still an unpleasant reminder of the certainty of death.

Speaking to the little blue plumber made her realize how little she actually knew about her companion. She trusted him implicitly, but she was still curious about him. So, when he came to check on her, all charm and grins and sparkling eyes, she questioned him not expecting the response she received.

The anger he displayed seemed only skin deep—a cover up for the despair that was now in his grey-blue eyes. He stood facing the view port and his shoulders sagged under some invisible weight. Moving to stand next to him, she deliberately made a show of cheering him up and in moments, he was back to his jovial self.

There was definitely a flash of jealousy at the flirtatious way the tree lady spoke to the Doctor, acting as though Rose wasn't standing right there. Of course, she would never admit it out loud. It was just a silly thing—or so she wanted to think.

Anger rose at the supposed "human" trampoline speaking of being the last "pure" human. She snapped out at her, letting out the frustration that had built up and boiled over since arriving on the space station.

After dealing with nearly being fried alive by the sun and battered to pieces by shards of the planet, Rose still would have helped Cassandra as she dried out, screaming for help. The Doctor's stone-faced reply that everything has it's time held her back. Again, she wondered what the Doctor's story was.

Leaving again in the TARDIS, Rose began to relax again as though the time ship was a home to her more than London ever was. They arrived back in her time, or at least somewhere near it, and being among the crowds of living, breathing human beings was comforting. The Doctor finally told her about what had happened to his planet and its people. She felt her heart ache at the loneliness in his eyes and voice as he spoke. The words came naturally, a promise she hadn't even really thought about before now.

"You have me."

There was no hesitation now. Gripping his hand in her own, they went to go buy some chips—as though eating a snack with a time-traveling alien that she had already so devoted herself to was something that happened all the time.


	4. Chapter 4

He hadn't wanted her to face death and danger quite so soon. He at least wanted her to get used to the lifestyle first. She had known that it would be dangerous though, and perhaps it was better this way. She could see some of the things he faced; see the dangers that popped up out of nowhere.

One thing that didn't surprise him was that it had been Cassandra who had orchestrated the entire thing. No one else there would have done it. She should have died long ago—Rose was right, Cassandra didn't really _live_. She just survived.

The Doctor hadn't meant to snap at Rose the way he did when she inquired about his people. She had the right to know. Even after being treated so harshly, she had dropped the subject and just said something silly to make him smile.

The rather apparent jealousy she displayed at Jade surprised him, though it really shouldn't have. He knew how strong the connection between him and her was—it was the strongest he'd ever had before, actually.

Later, back in time and on Earth's surface, her unspoken promise made him feel years of loneliness lift from him more than it had in a very long time. He was happy to go sit and eat chips with Rose. For a moment he could almost see a time and place where maybe some other version of him had lived a quiet life and actually enjoyed it. But of course, it was just a passing fancy. He couldn't stay in one place for long—not even for Rose. Lucky for him, she had no wish to stay in one place either.


	5. Chapter 5

He slipped up. He'd had a moment where his "true colors" had shown through. Rose Tyler had stunned him again, this time with something as simple as playing dress-up to fit into the eighteen hundreds. He covered himself with a quip about humans, but he doubted that she fell for it. She wasn't blind or unintelligent, quite the opposite, actually. He wouldn't have her here if she was.

There was no denying the spike of fear he felt when he saw her being shoved into the back of a hearse, unconscious. He didn't believe they'd harm her though, so he was able to push his anxiety to the back of his mind to excitedly rant at Charles Dickens while the carriage followed the hearse to retrieve his wayward companion.

The Doctor was unconcerned about telling Sneed off himself—Rose was doing an excellent job of it herself. She had quite the sharp tongue when it was needed. He was quite certain that when she was finished, the old mortician would be suitably cowed.

Rose argued with him about Gwyneth's safety while she opened the rift to allow the spirits through. Even when the girl said she was willing, Rose still argued. Perhaps his companion had seen something even he couldn't. He was a little irritated at being argued with, but he realized that it wouldn't be Rose if she didn't. He wouldn't want her around if she was any other way.

There was a moment that he truly was afraid that they would die down in that basement, trapped by alien zombies. Seeing Rose's courage made him grin in exhilaration, though. He intertwined his fingers with hers again and made sure she knew how he felt about her.

"I'm so glad to have met you, Rose."

He poured himself into the words and she saw them for what they were. She squeezed his hand and whispered back,

"Me too."

As usual, they were pulled from the brink of death—this time by one Charles Dickens.

The Doctor was more saddened by Gwyneth's death than he would readily admit. Rose's fears had been realized—his mistake had cost two lives, and nearly Rose and his own as well. He never claimed to be infallible, and as long as he got a happy ending, that was okay. What was life without mistakes?


	6. Chapter 6

Ghosts weren't exactly what she had expected on this trip, but she was certainly less surprised than she would have been only a few days ago. Of course, said ghosts actually turned out to be incorporeal aliens who had managed to survive the Time War at the cost of their physical forms. That was all they'd had to mention to gain the Doctor's help. His guilt drove him to give trust where it wasn't warranted.

She trusted him more than anyone else, so she had stopped arguing and let Gwyneth help the aliens. Of course, nothing was quite so simple. Flames and evil laughter never boded well for the good guys in the room. Dickens had run off, overwhelmed, and Sneed was dead, now inhabited by a Gelth and trying to kill her and her companion—the man who had been kind enough to take pity on some disembodied souls.

Her own ability to push away her fear surprised her, and she assured the Doctor that they would go down fighting. He grasped her hand and looked at her with that naked admiration that had shone through back in the TARDIS when she had first shown him her outfit.

"I'm so glad I met you."

"Me too."

And she meant it. Already, she didn't truly mind dying here if living had meant she'd never met him.

At the last minute, Dickens, apparently not just a brilliant writer but a brilliant mind, came bursting back in to rid them of their zombie assailants. The Gelth were still a problem though, and breathing gas fumes forever wasn't exactly a fabulous idea. By the skin of their teeth they escaped the explosion caused by Gwyneth—still protecting them after death.

Safe back in the TARDIS once again, Rose stared at the Doctor while he wasn't looking. How could this brilliant, eccentric, wonderfully playful but melancholy man could have inspired such devotion in her? Then he looked up and grinned, asking where to go next and she shrugged off her thoughts to join him once again.


	7. Chapter 7

*Yay! Finally got it finished! This one's the longest one yet since it was a double episode. BTW, anyone want to tell me how to actually spell "telley"? ~Inkweaver

She knew she'd be happy to see her mother. Of course, for Jackie it had only been one night. It was nice having a time machine in which you could be gone for days and come back to find only twelve hours had passed…Or not. When Rose saw her mother drop the coffee cup, she knew something was wrong. Jackie didn't even appear to notice that Rose had been as nonchalant as ever saying that she had spent the night at Shereen's.

As she was being smothered in her weeping mother's arms, of course the Doctor chose that moment to pop in and inform her that twelve months had passed. Go figure.

Rose understood Jackie's frustration and grief that her daughter wouldn't even tell her where she'd been for the past year. She was doing her best not to lie—hence just saying she was "traveling" .rather than saying she'd gone to Paris or something. She almost giggled when the Doctor said he "sort of employed Rose as his companion" because he seemed completely unaware of the possible innuendoes beneath a statement like that. Typically, the policeman there made that exact assumption. Neither the Doctor nor Rose took it too seriously. Of course, Jackie then assaulted the Doctor. Rose didn't think she'd ever seen him so shocked as when her mother slapped him.

Up on the roof, Rose watched as their conversation went from serious to…well…not so serious. They never needed to be truly serious because they'd faced life and death together and what could ever be more serious than that?

Finding out that he was over nine hundred years old wasn't shocking. She could see it in his eyes; the weight of years and guilt lay heavily upon his shoulders. It shone through his crystalline eyes. Actually, seeing a spaceship crash land in the middle of London—taking a part of Big Ben with it—was more of a shock.

Having the Doctor watch tellie was an adventure in itself. Used to living in the thick of the action, he was fidgety and threw glares at everyone who was talking—most of which went completely unnoticed. Rose held back a small laugh when her little cousin played with the remote and the Doctor seemed to have to fight the urge to toss the little boy out the window.

It was an honest worry that he would leave her alone when things got "too human" for him. His reassurances and the TARDIS key were his way of saying "I wouldn't leave you behind." With that anxiety off her chest, she was able to somewhat enjoy that too-human atmosphere in the flat.

Rose wasn't sure what she felt when Mickey showed up on her doorstep. She felt guilty for what he'd had to go through, but his antagonism toward the Doctor irritated her. She had made the choice to join him. Was it her fault Mickey couldn't stand the culture shock and was now jealous?

In a strange way, she was almost relieved when he went to tell Jackie the truth. She didn't have to make the decision to keep it away from her any longer. A flash of panic set in when Mickey said he'd seen the TARDIS disappearing.

He promised he wouldn't leave.

He promised he wouldn't leave.

He _promised._

The TARDIS was gone—Mickey wouldn't have lied—but the key began to glow and the strange screeching the ship made put Rose's panic to rest. The Doctor promised he wouldn't leave her, so of course he wouldn't. Things were never allowed to be quite so simple though.

Jackie seeing the inside of the TARDIS was not a good idea. At all. The happenings with the alien ship, however, were far too interesting to overlook, so Rose didn't immediately chase after her mother when she ran back to the flat in a flat out shock. (Admittedly, she handled it better than Mickey had the first time, though.)

Helicopters and policemen weren't exactly what Rose was expecting when she stepped out of the TARDIS. She held in a flash of intense irritation as she watched Mickey run away. What did she owe someone who wouldn't stand by her when she needed him? She had the rather awful impression that it had been Jackie to tell the Feds where the Doctor was. Of course, the Doctor hardly looked like an alien, but all they had to do was look below the surface and see those two hearts pumping to know what he was.

They didn't treat them roughly, and the backseat of the car they were escorted into was certainly a surprise. They were being treated as guests, the Doctor's unique knowledge allowing them to overlook the fact that he wasn't human. All the pomp and circumstance suited him well; that huge grin that could light up a street was seemingly permanently glued to his face now, and the two of them waved excitedly at the crowds.

She was touched by his determination to keep her with him inside Downing Street. His stubbornness was causing problems, though, so Rose assured him that she'd be fine and walked off with Ms. Harriet Jones. There was certainly more to the woman than met the eye. Knowing there were murderous aliens among them, Rose wondered who to trust and worried about the Doctor. He didn't know that the aliens were in here with them.

Her heart beat fast with adrenaline as she and Harriet Jones were chased through the corridors and into hiding. Really, she knew the hiding places weren't the best idea, but she was expecting—was hoping—that the Doctor would show up to save her at just the right moment as he had a knack for. Of course he did. And then effectively trapped them in the conference room.

Being scolded on the comment about making herself smaller made her realize just how much her travels with the Doctor had changed her outlook on life. She wondered what it said about her. She chose to see it as lightening the mood of a seemingly hopeless crisis—disapproval from the lady politician notwithstanding.

The call from Mickey and Jackie made Rose feel guilty for getting them so deeply involved in this, but she hadn't wanted her mother to know about the Doctor in the first place. Jackie had managed to cause a problem all on her own. Maybe it was better that she and Mickey knew, though, and were doing something instead of sitting oblivious to the dangers around them.

She couldn't help but feel a surge of impatience when the Doctor revealed that there was a way out of all this, but had held back because she might be hurt. She also felt a surge of…something (love?) for him as she realized he was literally risking the world to protect her. He had basically said that he would rather let the Earth go down in flames than lose her.

Of course, it was then that the only elected official in the room took charge and made the decision for them.

As the missile came at them, Rose grasped the Doctor's hand tightly and prayed he didn't lose her—or she him. The three of them came out unscathed and Rose smiled as Harriet Jones took off to handle the publicity. She would make a fine Prim Minister.

Jackie wanted to celebrate the defeat of the Slitheen, and Rose couldn't help but agree. The Doctor must have still been sore over his wounded pride when Jackie had slapped him and refused. Leaving again, this time with Jackie knowing full well where she was going was harder than that first spur of the moment decision.

This time, she really did want Mickey to join them, though she had the feeling that he wouldn't want to go. She didn't miss the glance he sent the Doctor before the Time Lord gave his flat refusal. She decided not to mention it. She supposed it was a good sign that the Doctor was trying to save Mickey's pride.

She promised Jackie that she would be back, though she knew her mother would never stop worrying about her. Rose wasn't going to leave the Doctor, though. She couldn't see a future without him, not anymore.


End file.
